Unforeseen Consequences
by SounDemoN
Summary: The Black Mesa Incident and the opening of the FedCom Civil war will collide. The Inner sphere and Half-Life universe will mix and mingle, unleashing a storm of towering war machines, humans and combine alike. A threat so real, even the Great Houses and Clans will have to choose, death or cooperation. Prepare for Unforeseen Consequences.
1. Chapter 1

Unforeseen Consequences

_**New Mexico, May 16 2002**_

Gordon hadn't said a word, he'd been briefed on what the day's goal was, and was lost in thought contemplating his task as he stepped onto the transit cart. The day before had yielded an item of great interest to his colleagues as much as it did concern, how had they come to possess it and what would the test results reveal? Some of his fellow scientists had even uttered the thought that the sample was too pure, and would lead them down a path they could not predict, towards a resonance cascade.

Despite the catastrophic potential, curiosity and greed overcame the shadows of doubt, for the possibility of such an event required an unparalleled release of energy, one of such magnitude that it would dwarf even the Soviet Union's Tsar Bomb. Though what destruction a resonance cascade would set free could only be speculated at, an event fleetingly privy only to those with the understanding of forces as such.

The transit cart came to a slow stop, slowly bringing Gordon out of his thoughts as it neared the platform. What the day held still lied in wait, and though apprehensive of his task, like his colleagues his curiosity was not blunted by his apprehension, and it was time to suit up.

_**Uninhabited System, May 13 3059**_

__Suspended 150 million kilometers from the systems star, the _Righteous Rain _waited. An old Invader class JumpShip, the common and reliable workhorse of interstellar travel, had spread its black sails. Inside the humming of a manmade star could be heard, its resonance reaching every corner of the ancient ship. On the bridge the crew steadily prepared the data that would propel the ship to parts more known.

"Captain, Engineering is reporting issues with the KF Drive"

Surprised, the Captain inquired "What sort of issues?"

"They are reading fluctuations in the KF field as they bring the Drive to full power" The helmsman replied

"Alright, delay the countdown, tell Jeleny she's got ten"

Close to the heart of the ship, rested the KF Drive, around it Engineers scurried back and forth, taking readings and retaking them, at the center Lisa Jeleny directed and gathered the various information.

"Chief, something is REALLY wrong, we can't bring down the turbulence in the KF field!"

"Then WHAT is CAUSING the turbulence?!"

"We can't narrow it down ma'am, we've checked every component that we can touch, and ran diagnostics on those that we can't. All's in the green, nothing is wrong with the drive!"

"Could it be the diagnostics? Could the mainframe be damaged or malfunctioning?"

"No ma'am, we've checked it too, it can run all the test protocols and it even generated the results a few seconds quicker, if anything its running better than it ever has!"

Frustrated, Chief Jeleny had to make a decision.

"What's the reading on the turbulence? How severe is it? Could it cause a misjump?"

"I couldn't say ma'am, we're reading an average one point nine TeV increase in the field, its small when you consider the fields total energy level to be a hundred EeV, but I wouldn't risk it ma'am. Even the slightest difference in the field could be our deaths knell. We need more time."

"We don't have the time, we're already two weeks behind schedule, and we were supposed to have our clients to Terra last week! Give me the odds something's going to happen."

"…I'd say three in ten we cook the drive, and two in ten we misjump."

Back on the bridge, the Captain watched the smallest hand on his watch tick past the twelve for the tenth time, Jelenys time was up, he needed a decision.

"Engineering, this is the bridge, is everything set? Are we go for a jump?"

"…Yes Captain, we are go."

"Good, helmsman, retract the sails and begin the count down."

The ship groaned as the KF Drive was fed the built up power that the sails and fusion plant had generated, steadily increasing the size and intensity of the KF field.

"Jump in T minus five, four, three, two, one: Jump!"

As if the void itself could scream, a deafening wail permeated the ship, all colour evaporated from their surroundings reducing the star below to a gargantuan point of light. As if being pulled, the star fell below them, reducing it further to just another point in the sky, then all at once every point around them grew until space had reversed colours, a glaring whiteness that cast the whole ship into shadow's that could not exist. The ship lingered in this state for but a moment, until the all-encompassing whiteness began to crack and fracture, and with every crack the ship shuddered and with every fracture the ship shook.

_**New Mexico, May 16 2002**_

"Shut it down! Shut it down!"

"Gordon! Get out of there!"

Gordon backed away from the Anti-Mass Spectrometer, trying to avoid bits of metal as the machine tore itself apart. Green arcs of lightning danced across the walls, one striking the control room, screams and an explosion rushed from the room. Gordon ducked under a bolt as it passed a foot above him, he began to run for the door, a second stride was as far as he made it.

_**Black Mesa, Orbital Control and Observation**_

"What is the Lambda complex doing?! Everything just crashed and the lights dimmed!"

"Damn them and Breen, every other complex comes second to Lambda, even our power goes to them!"

"Ah, the systems are coming back online. Wait a moment, what is that?! Henry, scan over to Sector 45"

"Alright, give me a moment, Sector 45 huh? Let's see…what is it indeed?"

One hundred and fifty million kilometers from the sun at what would be the Zenith point of Sol, there was a ripple, a distortion of space, small at first but began to grow exponentially. Then out of nothing a brilliant white light appeared at the center of the distortion and bloomed as the distortion did until it was a sphere a few kilometers shy of the diameter of the moon. It hung there in space for a moment and then exploded outwards, sending rays of coherent white light in every direction. Left at the center of the event, was a long black cylinder, along a straight section of the hull were inscribed the words _Righteous Rain_.


	2. Chapter 2

Unforeseen Consequences p2

_**Righteous Rain, Sol system, May 16 2002**_

Lisa awoke, floating towards a bulkhead at a snail's pace. She tried to reorient herself but found that there were parts of herself that were excruciating to move, a likely effect of being thrown across the reactor room while unconscious. Why was she unconscious in the first place? What had just happened? After figuring her right side was less sore than her left she began a spin and a thrust towards the bulkhead, making a sort of swimming motion, using what little thrust the air would provide.

Grabbing onto the handle at the edge of the bulkhead, Lisa killed her inertia thus allowing her to observe her surroundings from a fixed vantage point. From her point of view she could see the whole engine room, the emergency lights were all that provided illumination, tinging everything with a dark orange glow. Something was off, none of her crewmates were in sight, and the ship was deathly quiet, indicating that the fusion plant was either on emergency generation mode or shutdown, as to prevent the KF Drive from creating a runaway KF field. Either way life support would only last another few hours if the ships systems had activated the emergency shutdown and issued the general evacuation order. And she'd be damned if she'd let herself die here, determined to survive, Lisa did one last pass over the engine room to make sure she'd not missed something, seeing nothing, she made for the exit.

As she approached the door, she heard something like a struggled gasp, although too short to be considered a proper breath, it had sounded like something was blocking whoever was trying to breathe. Reaching the rooms exit, she hooked her foot into the metal arc that fashioned itself apart of the floor, allowing her to hold her place on the floor of the room. Peering around in the dim orange light, she tried to make out where the sound had come from.

"Hello? Is there anyone else in here?"

After a minute of nothing, Lisa had decided she was hearing things or the ship was playing tricks on her and she hadn't the time to waste looking for the source. She began to spin around to face the door when it came again, a low wheezing gasp that was cut short, and this time much closer. Lisa turned to face the direction of the sound, squinting in the dark trying to make out what had made the noise, she began by looking at the opposite wall and moved her gaze along the wall that ended in a corner behind her.

"What the fuck!? Jason!"

A meter in front of her, in the wall was a person, but he was not forced through the wall, and neither appeared damaged, other than the fact that the two were fused together. His head laid at an angle, the wall having fused with the right half of his head, and leaving only the left side of his face visible on the wall, the rest of his body completely obscured by wall.

"uhghht"

Lisa was speechless, and then she remembered. She'd never imagined that a misjump could cause this, and in a moment of clarity, she realized why the engine room had seemed deserted, she stared hard at the walls around her, and could identify little bits of people: fingers, tips of shoes, an arm and leg, and the top of some one's head revealing only part their scalp and a tuft of hair.

A shudder ran through her, she'd heard of misjumps before but the only thing that was known about them was that they resulted in the ship disappearing or a cloud of debris at their destination, but not this. In horror, she frantically opened the hatch, and before going through she uttered

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry"

And began making her way to the bridge.

_**Black Mesa, New Mexico, May 16 2002**_

The sound of an alarm rang distantly in the back of Gordon's mind, the smell of ozone and metal hung in the air, and smoke smothered everything. Gordon forced his eyes open, knowing that staying here was certain death. He was still in the test chamber, the anti-mass spectrometer had fallen into the center of the chamber, lying in pieces everywhere, and the walls were scorched and bearing the marks of re-solidified metal that had been liquefied from the strikes of energy that had been released from the crystal, which was now absent from the chamber.

Gordon grunted with the effort of pushing a sheet of metal off of himself, then standing and surveying his escape options, luckily the door to the chamber had been damaged and the lower half had been blown down. Running over to it, Gordon crouched under the top half of the blast door and exited the test chamber. A scientist lay under the door, having been crushed by its weight and staring blankly at the ceiling, Gordon could do nothing to help him, he was already gone, and he hoped that this would not be the fate of more of his colleagues.

Coming to the eye scanner, Gordon let the damaged scanner try to read his eyes, and for a moment it appeared as though the door would not open, only to open a moment later and then sparking and smoking, indicating is resignation. Stepping through the door way, Gordon was greeted by another scientist attempting to revive a guard, at least not everyone had suffered the same fate, though for now, how long that would last he could not say.

_**Black Mesa, Orbital Control and Observation**_

"What the hell are these things?!" a guard yelled

"Just don't let them in! We've got to let someone know that these monsters aren't our only visitors. But none of the systems are working, they're either crashed or fried! I can't even get the intercom working."

"Doc I don't think I can keep 'em at bay for long, I've got another three clips and that's it! Not to mention that they're busting down a blast proof door and take half a clip each! What the hell are they!?"

"Most certainly not from Earth, they must have come from whatever they were meddling with at the Lambda Complex. Regardless, I must try contacting someone, there has to be someone, someway!"

"Well whatever you do Doc, do it quick!"

"Yes, Yes. Neither of us have any desire to die here. Give me a moment, I have an idea."

The Scientist rushed over to where the launch console was, scanning over the screens that still remained unscathed and searching for the status of the rocket.

"This might actually work, the rocket is unharmed and is still fueled, and it looks like I'll also be able to use it as a communication relay once it's launched!"

"That's great news Doc, so could you hurry the hell up and launch it already? I'd really like to not be stuck in here with lightning hurling Cyclopes!"

"Of course, hold them off for a minute, I may have a way to clear them out for us."

The Scientist proceeded to start the launch sequence, as well as overriding the safety protocols on the bunkers main door and opening it to the outside, leaving only the door into the control room sealed.

"What are you thinking Doc!? You're going to let more in! This door really can't handle any more of 'em!"

"That's the idea my friend!"

And with adrenaline coursing through his veins, the Scientist flipped open the safety latch and hit the launch button. A roar from under them shook the ground, and at first the tip of the rocket emerged from the silo opening, and then began to move faster until it fully exited the silo and began to truly accelerate. A plume of flaming hot smoke and solid rocket fuel exhaust spread across the launch platform, rushing into the open bunker door and filling the exposed rooms of the bunker with the deadly cloud of gases. The hammering on the door was replaced with inhuman screams and words as the would-be killers were in turn burnt to a crisp by the scalding exhaust.

"Great job! I really thought we were going to get it there, you really saved our bacon Doc!"

"It certainly was close, now we've just got to warn the others, if they're not already dead. Barney, please go and check outside to make sure we really are in the clear, I wish to take no chances in this."

"You got it Doc, I'll be right back."

Barney opened the door, albeit with protest from the mangled door, and stepped through. On the ground were four crispy humanoids, Barney gave one a cautious kick, and it crumpled into ash. Satisfied they weren't going to try to taze him, he moved down the stairs to check the front door.

_**Righteous Rain, the Bridge**_

Lisa had reached the bridge only to find that it had suffered a similar fate to the reactor room, deserted at first glance but adorned with people fused into the various surfaces of the bridge. There was nothing she could do for them. She pushed off the door and made her way to the Captain's chair, seating herself, she brought up the main console in front of her and ran a diagnostic of the whole ship. When it finished she could see that the ship was indeed in emergency evacuation mode, the lifeboats were ready for launch but none had been used, only furthering the notion that she may be the only survivor aboard.

Just as the thought crossed her mind, the door to the bridge made the whirring sound that signified its opening. She turned in the chair and was surprised to see four figures clad in Battle Armour. She and the soldiers immediately recognized each other.

"Lisa! Thank fuck we're not the only ones who survived!"

"Lieutenant Cole! You've no idea how glad I am to see you, are you the only ones?"

"It seem so. We made our way from the DropShip to here, I came to first, took me a couple of minutes to find these guys, and we were the only ones left on our DropShip too. Didn't find anyone else on our way here, sorry."

"Don't be, I'm just glad that I'm not alone on this ghost ship. I was really starting to lose hope. The ships dead, the fusion plant is down and I couldn't say how many more of the ships systems are done for. Is your DropShip still intact?"

"Yeah, the lights are still on and I could hear the fusion plant, so we have a ride off this boat, we just wanted to gather as many survivors as possible, not to mention none of us know how to fly a DropShip. Please tell me you know how to fly a DropShip?"

"I know the theory, never actually flown one though, but hell if I'm staying here on account of that."

"Better than nothing, you're alone so I'm assuming you found no one else?"

"Only the pour saps stuck in the hull."

"Yeah, about that, I'm gonna have nightmares for the rest of my life." Chimed in another one of the soldiers

"No doubt about that kid. I don't think people are supposed to survive misjumps." A female voice joined in.

Lisa could only see the eyes of her compatriots though their armour, but she was glad she wasn't the only woman left.

"Ok, let's not stick around, no running fusion plant means no stabilizing thrusters, we should be falling towards the sun right now, but the navigation systems are dead so I've no idea how fast we're falling."

"Yeah, let's not be here when this ship burns up. Clear out, we're heading back to the DropShip, double time!"

No one hesitated.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey folks I didn't put any comments or whatever in the last two because I was too lazy. Anyways, some of you will probably like this chapter, some of you won't because of one thing, but you'll have to read to find it, and I couldn't carry on the character very well otherwise.

Also I hold no rights to the Half-Life, Mechwarrior/Battletech franchises nor anything connected to it, I'm just a fan that enjoys both immensely. This applies to both previous chapters and any to come.

Unforeseen Consequences p3

_**Black Mesa, Orbital Control and Observation**_

Barney had checked the launch platform was clear and had even made sure that the entrance to the platform was still holding up, it had suffered some burn damage as the rocket took off but was really more of a coating of soot. Satisfied that the area was secured, Barney headed back to the bunker and was eager to learn of their spur of the moment communications satellite, had it worked, could they bring in help, and who were the new comers? Were they somehow connected to the monsters appearing all over the complex, and if so how could they speak English? Or was their connection not one of some things command but of happen stance? He'd know soon enough, at least he hoped he would. Taking the steps up into the control room of the bunker, Barney could hear the Doc working away at a keyboard and wondered what warranted such furious attention.

"Bunker and everything up to the platform entrance is clear, only crispy monsters down there now. How's it going with the satellite? Is it up?"

"Not right now Barney, I've got to put it into a stable orbit, the cascade took out most of the ground based navigation systems and without them the rocket won't put the satellite into position."

"So that's why you look like you're beating the keyboard to death, thought you might've gone loopy."

The Scientist ignored the comment, he was more concerned with making their potentially last chance at help, not in vain. Barney saw fit to stand by the door and ensure nothing was going to interrupt them. A few moments passed as the Scientist worked on the rocket and satellite and then slumped back into his chair, seeming exhausted.

"Achieving a geosynchronous orbit, that's normally for a team of rocket scientists and a fleet of servers, and I'm certainly not a rocket scientist. The orbit isn't perfect, but it will due."

"So it works? The satellite is in position?"

"We will see, and it is. Now we've to wait but a moment as the satellite comes online and runs a systems check and see if all is in its proper place."

Barney approached the row of terminals and scanned for the monitor that displayed the mysterious ship, only to find that it was no longer there.

"Hey Doc! We've got a problem here, the ship isn't on here anymore!"

"Hmmm? Let me see."

The Scientist approached the terminal that Barney was at and found that the monitor did indeed show nothing other than wisps of solar plasma and the dark canvas of space. Concerned, the scientist reached for a small joystick that remotely controlled the observatories gaze. Panning down, he found the dark cylinder again though at an angle rather than its flat orientation that it held before.

"It's falling, it's falling towards the sun. Perhaps it is uncrewed, bah that can't be right, how would it have ended up here?"

"Maybe they're having issues controlling the ship? I mean, I know you scientists are involved in some pretty heavy stuff here but I've never heard of any projects that involved spaceships let alone one that can probably travel to other solar systems. Or are you?"

"No no, of course not, we've not even made the necessary developments into power generation to even achieve the theoretical power requirements for theoretical faster than light travel, to put it simply the needed energy is astronomical. The funding never went to those projects, but I do know that the Lambda complex was working on teleportation, but that is as far as my knowledge goes on the matter. In fact, I'd say that Lambdas venture probably worked, at least partially."

"Were they working on time travel to? Because that ship certainly has an English name, and it looks like it could've been built by humans. With all that's going on, would it really be a stretch to believe that that ship is human and from the future?"

"I couldn't say Barney, I won't deny the possibility, but I have my doubts. If they are human, perhaps they might be willing to help us with our predicament. If they are from the future, then I can only speculate, but I could see them having improvements over our weapons technology or at least in their defensive technology. I will try to send them a message using the satellite, I just hope they harbour no dire intentions."

_**Fortress Class DropShip Clarent**_

Lisa and the soldiers glided through the central shaft, using the ladder to guide and speed up their ascent. They were almost to the bridge of the DropShip and were all eager to detach from the JumpShip and begin their journey towards Terra. Reaching the end of the shaft, the soldiers grabbed the handles on either side of the corridor and pulled themselves toward the bridge door.

"Ok, everyone in, take a place and listen to what Lisa tells you to do."

Obeying Coles orders, the three others took up the consoles at the front of the bridge and opened their helmets so they could see the screens and instruments before them. Lisa began to look over the display in front of her to ensure that all was in order.

"Helium, check. RCS propellant, check. Navigation, on. Stability control, on. Fusion torches, ready. Reactor ready for load. All systems nominal. I think that's everything…I hope that's everything."

"Uh, ma'am? If I'm reading this right, we're only a hundred million kilometers from Sol, that's fifty million kilometers in under 15 hours, says relative velocity to Sol is one thousand three hundred and sixty two kilometers per second."

"What!?" Lisa yelled in horror

"That's not good, is it?" asked the female soldier

"Hell no that's not good, I…I don't think, over a thousand kilometers a second is…"

"Is what?!"

"There's nothing I can do, even if I put the engines on full burn, we'll have killed enough of our velocity to stop our descent but that would leave us only enough helium to make a burn towards Terra, but not enough for us to slow down before we hit Terra. And that's if the ship doesn't rip itself apart from the G's.

"So what CAN we do?"

Lisa was about to answer when one of the other soldiers yelped in surprise

"Guys, we just got a tight beam transmission from Terra, but it's got no transmission ID attached and it was bounced off of a satellite in Terra's orbit. It's also got a lot of digital data attached to it, but it can't be right, it's got over a gigabyte of data in it."

"Open it! Maybe Terra's offering some help?"

"I can't open the whole thing, we don't have the storage for it. I can isolate the audio though."

"Play it" ordered Cole

The soldier hit a button and the audio started to play on the bridge intercom

"Righteous Rain, this is Dr. Erin Eckhart from the Black Mesa Research Facility. I am hoping that there is someone aboard to receive this message, and to understand it. We have many questions to ask, but we must first request your assistance in any capacity that you can provide. We are experiencing localised dimensional tears and are as a result under attack from foreign bodies, we require your assistance if you are willing to provide it and as stated before will accept as much as you are willing to give."

"Did he say _localised dimensional tears_?"

_**Black Mesa Sector E, Materials Transport**_

Gordon brought the crowbar down on the marines head before he could get a shot off, making a sickening crack as the crowbar shattered bone. The marine slunk to the ground, rattling every piece of equipment he had on him, thus alerting the other nearby marines. They opened fire, giving only a fraction of a second for Gordon to react. Ducking out of the line of fire and behind a concrete wall, Gordon stowed away his crowbar and brought out the mp5 he'd picked up from another hostile marine and loaded it.

Running from the wall in a sudden manner, Gordon returned fire hitting two of the marines but leaving the third unscathed. Returning to cover opposite to his previous position, he heard one fall but no others. Gordon looked at the corner of his helmet and read a count of two forty millimeter grenades left, deciding that he hadn't the time to waste with the HECU marines he popped out from around the corner and shot one off at the marines who had begun to spread out. The blast catching both of them, they were sent flying and landed with a dull thud and a sharp clink of metal.

Gordon peered around the corner to make sure the tunnel was clear, seeing nothing that wanted to kill him, Gordon started to make his way over to where the marines were. Picking up their mp5's, Gordon took the clips and grenades and then dropped the guns. Seeing nothing else worth taking, Gordon continued down the tunnel, following the monorails track. Further ahead, he could see the opening of the tunnel into a larger chamber and a circular piece in the center, as he approached the end of the tunnel, he heard a roar unlike anything he'd ever heard, it reverberated off of the walls and shook the ground beneath him. The roar was followed by the screaming of orders and then the screaming of pain and gun fire. Gordon crouched down and came to the edge of the tunnel and pressed himself up against the wall, looking around the corner he saw a huge dark green humanoid with pincer like hands charging at some HECU marines, they were firing everything they had at it though that only seemed to aggravate it and spur it on. Before it reached them, a marine fired off a grenade at it that exploded above its eye, in response the creature stomped on the ground, sending a stream of energy that clung to the ground, and finding its target, causing the marine to explode into chunks. The other marines cried out fear and anger, just as it reached them it opened its claw like appendages and spewed a stream of fire from each at the marines, instantly killing them a la barbeque.

"How the hell am I supposed to kill that?"


	4. Chapter 4

Unforeseen Consequences p4

_**Black Mesa, Orbital Control and Observation**_

"Doc! We got a reply!"

Erin rushed over from the opposite side of the room where he was monitoring the status of the satellite and attempting to reconnect to others.

"Let's hope we've not garnered more enemies. I'm going to play it."

"Go for it."

"Dr. Erin Eckhart, we are not certain of the meaning of some of your message, nor have we ever heard of such a facility on Terra as the _Black Mesa Research Facility_, but such details can be sorted when the time presents itself. For the moment, before we can provide assistance we require yours. We are aboard a Fortress class DropShip that is docked with the Righteous Rain, and as it stands we are falling towards Sol at over a thousand five hundred kilometers per second, we have not the resources to break free of our fall without dooming or destroying ourselves. Is there anything that you are capable of providing that would spare us this fate?"

Both Erin and Barney were confused by certain choices in words in the message, but also somewhat clarified who the new arrivals were.

"They described Earth, as Terra, they speak English and uses the same measurement system as us. As far as we can tell. Based on this, I would conclude that they are most definitely human, or at least close to it, and that they bear no nefarious intentions. Not to mention that they require OUR help. I am going to send them a response in the affirmative to their plea, I will need a moment to coordinate a strategy to help them."

"Ok Doc, they sound ok, but we can't really be sure. But what the hell, let's help them and hope they return the favour. What can I do?"

"Send them a message asking what kind of thrust their propulsion is capable of, it is a crucial factor in how I will devise their escape. Also reply in audio only, they did not reply in video, so perhaps they are not in a position to receive such data, not to mention that correspondence will take roughly eight minutes to travel to them and them to us"

"Alright gimme a sec."

Barney quickly shifted over to the terminal that had a mic connected and began to record.

_**Fortress Class DropShip, Docked with JumpShip Righteous Rain**_

"The message should be coming in soon, how long ago was it that we sent them our reply?" inquired Cole

"Exactly nine minutes and thirty seconds ago" Lisa replied

Another minute passed as they waited, and then the console made a pinging sound.

"Here it comes! Receiving message now. And playing it."

A voice they hadn't heard before begun to speak

"I've been asked to ask you what your propulsion capabilities are, and uh…uh one sec. Right ok can you produce more than 30mN of thrust? If so then…what? Repeat that?"

A more familiar voice could be heard in the back ground, and it sounded irritated.

"Ok, point your ship towards Earth, err Terra, and then begin to thrust with at least 30mN, burn for 20 minutes, then point the ship so that you are travelling perpendicular to the sun, then resume the burn until you have come back around to the top of the sun and use the speed to escape the gravity well, and burn in the opposite direction to slow your approach. Doc, isn't this just sling shooting around the sun? Why didn't you just have me say that? I'm pretty sure they know what a gravity slingshot is. Anyways, best of luck and we hope to see you soon."

Everyone but Lisa seemed dumbstruck, though not hopeless as they were reassured by Lisa's appearance of understanding. She immediately sprang into action.

"Cole, sound off everyone here no ranks just names, I'll need to call all of you by name, I won't be able to do this alone."

Cole nodded and complied

"Mark Cole"

"James McAlister"

"Svetlana Keller"

"Samir Javaid"

"Ok, Mark I need you to keep an eye on our altitude from Sol, you've control of the heavy maneuvering thrusters, and don't let us drop below eighty million klicks. Samir, you keep us on course and make sure our heading stays true, first heading will be bearing 45 by 189 and then 90 by 90, hold the first until we begin the slingshot. Svetlana I need you to monitor the hull temp and give me mag scans of Sol, I don't want to run into a solar flare. James you're on timing and distance, tell me when we've moved for 20 and then reset on the beginning of the slingshot and recount for when we come over to the other side."

All shouted responses in the affirmative and dug their focus into their stations and assigned tasks

"Prepare your selves, this is going to be one hell of a rough ride. We've got one shot at this, so let's not fuck it up. I'd really rather not end up as space debris in the home system of mankind."

_**Black Mesa, High Altitude Center**_

Gordon dove into the elevator, attempting to avoid the ire of the HECU marines that were hot on his tail. Hitting the back wall of the elevator knocked the wind out of Gordon, switching to his left side and sitting up he tried to regain his breath and sense of orientation, just as his breath began to come back to him, he heard the sound of running boots. Knowing he would have but a few short moments before the marines were upon him, he shot up and took a stride towards the panel of buttons, but before he could hit a floor a marine came running past the elevator door and spotted Gordon, skidding to a stop while bringing his weapon to bear. The sub-machinegun let out a fierce cackle and peppered the walls of the elevator with impact marks, sending sparks and shrapnel pinging around the interior of the elevator, a round striking Gordon's side sent pain up to his brain where it exploded into a mix of the dull ache from his dive and the sharp pain of a broken rib. In response Gordon brought up his shotgun and pulled the trigger all the way back, the gun vomited a storm of pellets that tore into the marine, sending him flying backwards and into the wall behind, wasting no time Gordon hit the button that would take him the surface. As the doors slid closed Gordon could hear the other marines running, but too late to catch him, taking the moment of peace Gordon allowed himself to slump against the elevators wall and checked where he'd been hit, luckily the HEV suit had protected him from the bullet as it had not penetrated, but gently feeling his side with his hand sent the sharp stab of pain again

"_Major fracture detected, automatic medical system engaged, Morphine administered_"

"Ahrgh, I'm going to be a freakin' morphine addict before this is over" Gordon whispered to himself

As the elevator arrived at the top floor, it made the _ping _sound that indicated that it had reached the requested destination and the doors slid open, before stepping out, Gordon pumped out the two empty shells and fetched two more shells out of the hip height sealed pocket, loading them into the spas12. Poking his head out of the elevator and looking around to make sure nothing awaited his arrival, and seeing nothing satisfied Gordon that he wasn't in imminent danger, he stepped out and made his way towards the door that had _Orbital Control and Observation _written above it.

_**Borderworld, Xen**_

A tremor ran through the fabric of reality, a sigh. Deep into what could be perceived as the center of Xen, existed the last visage of a species, unimaginable powerful and old. It spoke out across the Borderworld in contemplation, listening for the echo of its own _voice_

"**See…I see…belong…they do not belong."**

The being changed its focus, and looked through the portal that it did not create, looking towards the star of the humans

"**Hrrrmmm…survive…they can not…survive…they will not"**

_**Fortress Class DropShip, Docked with JumpShip Righteous Rain**_

Lisa was reaching for the switch that would separate them from the JumpShip, when she heard it.

"**Be…no more"**

Lisa pushed herself back in her seat and looked all around the DropShips Bridge, searching for the source of the voice. Seeing that everyone else was looking equally bewildered, she voiced their collective question

"What the hell was that? You all heard it too?"

"No doubt about it, I heard it. It…it sounded like it came from inside my head?" Cole responded

"I was unlike anything I've ever heard, it didn't even sound…human." Svetlana commented

"Becoming one with Sol is NOT on my bucket list so can we just get the hell out of here?" James asked

Lisa shook off the doubts and questions running around in her mind, and readied herself for the flight ahead. Reaching again for the switch, she opened the safety and flipped the switch beneath. Nothing happened.

"Uh, that's not how it's supposed to go is it then?" asked Cole

Further confused, Lisa flipped the switch back into its former place and brought it down again, expecting to hear the clunk and hiss of undocking. Again there was nothing.

"Look, look!" Samir cried out

Everyone brought up their heads from their consoles and looked in the direction Samir indicated. No more than a few meter's in front of the JumpShip, was a small green circle, it trembled as a pool of water does when disturbed, and then it began to grow. As it expanded it curved to encapsulate the entirety of ship, coming down and meeting itself at the back of the JumpShip. As soon as the green field had encompassed the full size of the ship, it flashed from its starting point first yellow and then orange and then back to green, each flash blinding all of them and tinting their vision with the trinity of colours.

"**Now die…now die…now**"

With the same suddenness of the voice, a pull could be felt, a pull that came from below, it was strong. Rubbing her eyes, then blinking them clear, Lisa could see stars and a faded blue tinge. Confused, she looked down at the console, her eye's widened in realization.

"Holy shit! We're in Terra's atmosphere!"


	5. Chapter 5

Unforeseen Consequences p5

_**Fortress Class DropShip, Docked with JumpShip Righteous Rain**_

_**Low Earth Orbit**_

Gravity flooded around and into the two ships as the previously unoccupied space was filled with their presence, and began to pull, sending tremors and groans throughout the adjoined hulls as structural stress built.

"Oh shit" James yelled out as he felt the sudden presence of gravity

"We're all going to die!" exclaimed Samir, his terror reflected in everyone's minds

Lisa quickly reached for the undocking switch and flipped it, using her whole hand to smack the switch into the unlatched position. This time the clank and hiss came, sending a wave of relief through her, but quickly evaporated as she returned her attention to their predicament.

"Cole! Right this tub, I going to do a deceleration burn!"

Cole, while visibly shaken, obeyed the command and began to use the navigation ball displayed in front of him to align the ship so its fusion torches were facing the fast approaching ground. As soon as the DropShips rear was pointing downwards, Lisa punched the throttle to the max, disregarding the engine warmup procedure in lieu of their imminent death.

The shock of deceleration crushed everyone into their seats as the fusion torches pumped out a whopping 300mN, causing the ship to experience a 6G push. Lisa, having lived on JumpShips for the majority of her life, had experience with acceleration and deceleration and so managed to withstand blacking out, her compatriots were not so lucky. Cole, James and Samir's head slumped down so that their chins touched their chests, loosely rolling their heads around trying to reorient their heads but were unable for lack of blood in their heads. Svetlana was the only other who managed to not pass out from the deceleration as she was an aerospace fighter, hence being similarly attuned to high G's like Lisa.

"Svetlana take control of the maneuvering thrusters!" Lisa barked

And wasting no time, Svetlana did just that, immediately correcting the tilt that had been imparted during the others blackouts. Beneath them, the fusion reactor's humming had turned into a rumble that would be comparable to the sound of an earth quake, combined with the deafening howl of the fusion torches made for an intense chorus.

"A hundred thousand meters!" called out Svetlana, trying to be heard over the din

Checking her own readouts, Lisa saw their speed relative to Terra was just over a kilometer a second but dropping fast, but not fast enough. Just as she brought her gaze back up to the view ports, the JumpShip whizzed past, in a dive that went bow first. JumpShips not being designed for atmospheric flight it began to break apart as the atmosphere thickened below them. Lisa was about to yell for Svetlana to maneuver them out of the JumpShip debris way, but she was already shifting their course.

"We're falling too fast! We can't decelerate enough!" Svetlana cried out

"I know! I'm going to over burn at five thousand meters!" Lisa rang out in response

"I know I can handle a lot of G's but that'll put us over the top!"

"We've got to try!"

"Thirty thousand meters!"

Lisa began furiously tapping away at the screen, shifting the helium fuel into the fusion torches preceding stage, and overrode the safeties on the fusion plant allowing the reaction nestled inside to grow over the engines designed limits resulting in an increased power output of over 100MWs which would be needed to flash burn the excess helium.

"Ten thousand meters! Eight hundred meters a second!"

Lisa readied herself for the imminent and undoubtedly painful shovel full of G's they were about to face

"Six thousand meters!"

"NOW!" Lisa roared

For a second, nothing happened, leading to a collective sinking feeling in Lisa and Svetlana. A second later, the already existing din seemed to shiver and quiet for what seemed like an eternity though it truly lasted a few milliseconds, and then grew to a crescendo that burst like an erupting volcano. Sending their velocity from 700 meters per second to 200, spiking the G's to a momentary 13 G's. Unable to look out due to their heads being pulled by the sheer deceleration, left them only able to listen, and barely at that. Even through the deafening racket, they heard the explosion of the JumpShip crashing into the surface, what was left of it anyways, that sent a shockwave out in every direction for kilometers. The blast further slowing their descent, brought them to a comparatively leisurely pace of 50 meters per second at 500 meters from the ground. The G's slackened and rested at 1.2 G's, allowing the both of them to bring their heads back into position.

"We, we're alive!" cried out Lisa in joy

"Now all that's left is to land this hunk of metal"

Lisa pulled back the throttle to a tenth of the full power and cut the feed of extra helium to the reactor, bringing it back into safe operational levels. Now only a few tens of meters away from the ground, Lisa extended the landing gear and cut back further on the throttle, easing off the thrust that kept them in the air.

"Touch down!"

_**Black Mesa, High Altitude Center**_

Gordon approached the blast doors that lead into the launch pad and control room, though they didn't open. Figuring them to be locked from the other side, he ventured a guess that someone had sealed themselves in, he'd hoped at least. Seeing the panel on the wall adjacent to the door, he approached it and saw that he wouldn't be able to open them with the panel, but could contact whoever was inside.

He pressed the button that opened the channel

"Hello? Is somebody in there? Anybody?"

Gordon waited a moment, but no one answered. Gordon looked back the way he'd come and hoped the HECU marines wouldn't follow him, only to hear the same _ping _that he'd heard a few moments before. Gordon checked his HUD for his suits power level and his ammo reserve, finding the suit to be at 60% charge and a handful of shells and clips left.

"At least I've got my crowbar…"

But before he could continue the thought he heard the static crackle of the intercom

"Who's there?"

"It's Gordon, let me in, I'm about to get a visit from some marines and I'd really like to avoid them."

"Gordon? Of course, I'll unlock the door!"

The locking mechanisms clanged and the doors whirred open, Gordon stepped through and hit the close button on the matching panel just as he heard the marines come running.

"Gordon, hot damn you made it out of the test chamber! I thought you were a goner for sure." Barney greeted him

"Yeah, it got hairy for a bit there. I'd take that beer from you right about now."

"You and me both my friend. What a nightmare huh?"

A scientist emerged from the control room and beckoned them inside. They began to walk over when they heard a sort of whooshing and whistling sound, Gordon who had already been attacked with artillery and bombs that day recognized the sound as something large and dangerous falling very fast. He looked up towards the sky, the other two followed his gaze. What they saw was a very large cylinder shaped metal object and what appeared to be a sphere riding down on an inverted mountain of fire. Not wanting to be outside when it crashed, Gordon bolted for the control room, followed by Barney while Erin rushed back in.

Just as they made the door, it hit, unleashing an explosion that sent both Gordon and Barney cartwheeling into the control room. Erin closed the outer door before the resulting fireball and heat reached them. The blast lasted only a few moments, but was deafening none the less.

"What in the hell was that!?" Barney exclaimed when the blast died down

Gordon shrugged innocently with an expression mirroring Barney's bewilderment

"If I saw that correctly, I think that was the _Righteous Rain_" remarked Erin

"You gotta be kidding me?" Barney asked incredulously

"The _Righteous _what?"

"The _Righteous Rain _is a ship that showed up approximately one AU above the sun around the same time the resonance cascade began, it surprised us when we saw it too and even more so when it looked like it had an English name. The situation being as it is, we figured it couldn't hurt to ask them for help, only to find out that they also spoke English and seemed friendly. My guess is as good as yours, but I believe that they're from the future, based on the observation that they arrived in a spaceship unlike anything I've ever seen." Erin explained

Gordon was surprised, that he was surprised. Despite all of the day's events, he'd thought that nothing would shock him anymore, but circumstance had proved otherwise. But something didn't match up in Gordon's mind, he had to ask

"Then…if they were at least two AU from us, how did they get here?"

"I'm not certain, they themselves were in a bind as it sounded like they had experienced some sort of catastrophic failure prior to or during their arrival in our solar system, to which they asked our help in reply to our request for help. I'd plotted a gravity slingshot for them to arrive on Earth, but that should have taken hours at least if not days!"

"Well they're here now, or at least their remains are." Barney added

"I saw another…piece I suppose, of the ship coming down but it looked like it was under control, certainly not crashing" Gordon remarked

Just as Erin was about to reply, a sound came from further in the control room, static at first, and then a voice

"This is the Fortress class DropShip Proteus, we are grounded and ready to help. Erin, you still there?"

Rushing over to the console, Erin unmuted the mic

"I'm still here, looks like you guys had a bit of a rough landing, all's still in one piece? Minus the…JumpShip was it?"

"Yes, minus the JumpShip. We're not too sure how we got here, but we're glad to be on solid ground. Let me wake Cole up and you can fill him in on your situation"

Lisa unstrapped herself from the chair and made the two steps it took to reach him. Shaking him by the shoulder, lightly at first, didn't wake him up. She held him by both shoulders and then gave him a good shake, snapping him out of his forced slumber.

"Huh!? What? Oh, right. Did we make it? Looks like we made it."

"We made it." Lisa confirmed

"Thank goodness, I guess I slept most of the way down then?"

"Only for two hundred kilometers or so"

"Huh, well I'm going to wake these knuckle heads, made contact with that Erin fellow from, where was it again?"

"Black Mesa, actually, we came right down on top of the facility, though it wouldn't look that way from up here then would it? I think this is somewhere in _North America _if I remember my Terran geography correctly."

"Could have fooled me, looks like a desert to me, but looks can be deceiving then eh?"

"Anyways, I and Svetlana will wake the others, you find out what's going on down here, Erin is waiting to fill you in."

Lisa pointed to her console and Cole gave her a nod

"Hey, good flying." Cole added before turning to the console and opening the channel.

"This is Lieutenant Mark Cole of the 88th Davion Heavy Guards, is this Dr. Erin Eckhart I'm speaking to?"

"Hello Lieutenant Cole, this is Dr. Eckhart speaking."

"Good to meet you, sort of. Now what's this about trouble of your own?"

"Hmm, alright let's see, where to start. From my understanding, we are under attack from extra dimensional aliens that came through a portal we created to a dimension called _Xen_, as a result the military has sent in the Hazardous Environment Containment Unit, or HECU for short, to eliminate the aliens as well as us who've been trapped in the facility by the disaster. That's the short version."

Mark was prepared to hear a lot of things, he'd expected something outrageous, but this was not among the things he'd anticipated.

"Uh, hmm, uh yeah ok, you offered help when we asked for it despite our odd situation, so it'd be rude to deny you our help in your…odd situation. Just give me an idea of where I am and where you are and we'll be right over."

"Sure, let's see" in the background could be heard the tick and click of a keyboard and two people talking, though what they were talking about was undeterminable.

"There we go, I'm sending you a map of the facility and a surface view of the same map, I've circled the area you landed in, roughly, and marked where we are with an X. How do you plan on getting over here now that your ship's landed? From what I can tell, you're at least a couple of kilometers from us."

"I'll be riding my Grasshopper over, I'll be there shortly."

The line went dead as Mark closed the connection. Thinking to himself and trying to understand what the man had said, but finding it no easy task, he turned to his colleagues with a puzzled look and asked

"Grasshopper?"


	6. Chapter 6

Unforeseen Consequences p6

_**New Mexico, Black Mesa Surface, DropShip Proteus**_

Mark Cole slid down the ladder that lead into the Mech bay where his GHR-5H "Grasshopper" was locked in place. Running along a catwalk, Cole reached his Mechs bay and climbed up the ladder attached to the back of its shoulder, opened the hatch and entered the cockpit. He took the cooling vest from the command couch and strapped it over his torso, then reached for the neuro helmet behind the seat and placed it on his head, securing the shoulder pieces to the cooling vest. After buckling the belts to keep him in his chair, he began the start-up procedure

"Begin start-up sequence, pass indigo, juliet, victort, tango"

"_Voice authentication and pass code confirmed. Hell hath no fury like a…" _the Mechs computer prompted

"Scorned MechWarrior" Cole said, finishing the start-up authorization code key

Below him, he could hear the fusion plant churn to life, shifting from standby mode to active mode. A rumble spread though the Mech as the reactor energized the small fusion reaction that kept the Mech supplied with basic power, bringing it up to full swing. Checking the different displays around him, he first saw that the power plant was almost too its full output of 280MW, then checked his weapons status and saw green on his large laser, four mediums and the LRM-5 mounted in the shoulder with a 180 round bin counting 180 out of 180. Satisfied with his machines status, he took the joysticks in hand and flipped the disconnection switch for the gantry then took a step forward.

"This is Lieutenant Cole, I am ready to go, and someone open the bay door?"

"Affirmative Cole, bay door opening now" Samir replied from the bridge

The massive door opened at a glacial pace, though Mark was used to it, having been a MechWarrior for 15 years had taught the pilot many lessons, patience among them. As soon as the door had come down and touched the ground, Cole took his Mech out at a walking pace as the DropShips weren't really meant for the weight of a running Mech. Stepping out into the twilight, he saw the beige and orange desert that surrounded them. Tall and thin columns of wind carved stone stood all around in varying shapes and sizes, most being far in the distance. Cole checked his map to see where he'd needed to head to get to Erin

"7.5Km North-North-East. This is Cole, I'm off, I'll report back when I've reached the target destination"

"Affirmative Cole, good luck, stay sharp out there, no idea what kind of hostiles _Dimensional Tears _will produce."

Cole turned his Mech and started it in a jog that turned into a run, making for the base at 64 Km/h should take about 7 minutes. As Mark ran along the desert, he heard the same voice that had spooked all of them just before the ship was teleported

"**What…sort of abomination…no, this will not stand**"

"Oh boy, here it comes"

Just as Mark had finished, a multitude of green, yellow and orange spheres appeared a few hundred meters from him, as they evaporated a horde of 1 story tall green and black Cyclopes were left in the spheres places. They all turned to him and began to run at a slow pace compared to his Grasshopper.

Having no time to delay, he dropped the golden circle on one of them and fired his large laser. A whitish blue beam reached out and slashed across one of the Cyclopes torso, scoring a deep and scorched gash across its frame. It stumbled and reeled back as the lance of coherent light delivered its deadly energy, stopping for a moment and then regaining its footing, it continued its charge.

"What the hell are these things made of?!" Mark asked to no one in particular

Not wanting to let them any closer, he aimed for the nearest Gargantua and unleashed all four medium lasers into its eye. A massive roar came in response to the attack and caused it to fall onto its back, a fall from which it did not get up again, it squirmed in the sand for a few more moments and then laid still. Finding their weakness, Mark capitalized on his advantage by locking his LRMs on the furthest Gargantua and loosing the flight, the five missiles formed into a cluster and came down on top of what could be considered their heads, sending shards of thick green hide in every direction. The impacted monster fell to its knees and propped itself up on one of its arms.

"Common you giant alien fucks! Is that the best you've got?!"

Deciding that standing still was not the best option, Mark put the Mech back into a jog, circling the Gargantuas on his left. Turning the torso to the left, mark let loose another salvo of missiles that landed on the shoulder of the downed Gargantua, further pummeling it into the ground. He twisted slightly to his right and saw that two of them were trying to get in front of him, and two more were approaching from his left. Bringing the crosshair to face the Gargantuas on his left, he fired the large laser at the closer one's eye, though it leaned into its right side thus causing the beam to hit above its arm instead of its eye. The hide around the arm glowed as the beam rested on a single point for a second and then exploded as the fluids flash boiled, causing a pressure explosion which severed its right arm. Suddenly unbalanced, the Gargantua crashed into its neighbor bringing them both to the ground.

While distracted with eliminating the Gargantuas on his left, Mark had failed to keep track of the two to his front. Just as he was about to turn and face them, he crashed into one, sending the Gargantua flying for a few meters due to the weight his Mech had over the organic behemoths. The impact was significant enough to cause his Mech to lose its footing for a moment, and came down on top of the fallen Gargantua, crushing its leg with his Mechs shoulder. A mix of a roar and a groan came out of the monster, and instead of wallowing in its pain, it brought up its arms and aimed them at the Mechs chest. Lances of fire came out of the pincer like appendages that its arms ended in, causing Coles Mechs heat to skyrocket, turning his cockpit into an oven.

Gasping for air, Cole knew that firing any of his weapons could cook him where he sat, he opted for the use of his Mechs limbs. He brought up his Mechs left arm and balled the hand into a fist, and brought the hand down in a knuckle first strike just above the Gargantuas eye. The hit shattered the monsters hide and forcefully closed the eye, making the giant cease its onslaught of fire. The Mechs cooling systems managed to rein in the heat and brought it back to a toasty but manageable 70%, not wanting the Gargantua to regain its will to fight, Mark brought the fist down on the same spot, caving in its head.

Rolling the Mech over onto its back, Mark saw the now deceased Gargantuas wingman come lumbering towards him, making what sounded like their equivalent of a war cry, which he heard though his cockpit. Obviously angered, the giant reached the feet of the Mech and stomped on the ground, sending a bolt of energy into the desert floor and up into the Mech, sending reverberating shocks though Cole.

"Ugh, huuuckf"

Mark coughed blood onto his chest, his head spinning. Spurred by the close encounter with death, mark shot out the Mechs leg into the knee of the Gargantua just as it was about to unleash its hellfire upon him. Its leg buckled under its weight and began to fall forward, as it tried to regain its balance and stop its forward momentum, Cole brought his Mechs knee up into the monsters mouth, coating the actuator with purple blood and sending the beast in the opposite direction of its fall. Using his Mechs arms, Cole propped his Mechs torso up on its arms and fired the large and two medium lasers into the Gargantuas broken mouth, boring a hole through the roof of its mouth and out the other side of its head.

"I need backup! Get McAlister in the Hunchback!" Mark shouted though the com channel

Just as another 6 green spheres appeared ahead of Cole.

"You've gotta be fuckin' kidding me!"

_**Black Mesa, Orbital Control and Observation**_

A tremor shook the control room, causing everyone to reach for something to stabilize themselves.

"What the hell was that?!" Barney exclaimed

"Wasn't anything good, I my mind." Gordon responded

Erin left out his remark and went to one of the consoles instead, opening a series of camera feeds situated around the launch platform.

"Oh dear, you'll both want to see this."

Gordon and Barney came to Erin's side and looked that the console he'd opened. What they saw was a two story tall metal humanoid crash to the ground amongst a horde of green giants.

"What are those?!" Barney asked shocked

"I fought one of those in Sector E, had to use the power grid for the whole monorail to kill it, bullets and explosives didn't even scratch it. And, is that _machine_ what that Cole person meant by _Grasshopper_?"

"I believe so, it doesn't look like it's going well for him. There must be something we can do?" Erin inquired

"We don't have the firepower to take ONE of those things down, let alone a horde of them." Said Gordon

"So we have to just sit here and watch?" Barney asked incredulously

"I'm afraid so, based on what Gordon's saying. Ah, at least we can call it in to his DropShip, maybe they can help!" Erin said hopefully

Barney ran over to the console that held the channel open for communication, and pinged the _Proteus_

"Proteus! You're guy's getting hammered out there, he needs help! Send anything you've got, or he may not make it out of there alive!"

Shuffling could be heard at the other end, then static and finally the static muted and a voice came through

"Roger Black Mesa, thanks for the heads up, were scrambling what we can to help him. No way are we going to let him die after we made it this far!"

_**DropShip Proteus**_

"Svetlana get to your fighter and go help him!"

Svetlana was already getting up and running for the door

"Open the launch bay, I need to scram out of there ASAP!"

Samir hit a few points on his screen and flipped a switch, below the sound of moving gears and metal could be heard.

"It's open, go!" Samir shouted, Svetlana was already climbing down the ladder.

"_I need backup! Get McAlister in the Hunchback!_" came Mark though the coms channel

"Get going then!" Lisa barked

James shot up and ran after Svetlana, and headed for the Mech bay.

"Hold on Cole! Back up is enroot! Just hold out for another two minutes!"

"I don't have two minutes! Just make it fast!" Cole's panicked and feverish voice came through

_**DropShip Proteus, Launch Bay**_

Svetlana dawned her flight suit faster than she'd ever done before, then raced for her Thunderbird ASF, the hundred ton monstrosity of an aerospace fighter that packed enough firepower to bring down DropShips. Climbing into the cockpit, she put the cooling vest over her flight suit and took the flight helmet from the mount behind the chair.

"_Retinal Scan complete, Welcome Pilot Svetlana. _Беда́ никогда́ не…"

"прихо́дит одна́"

Svetlana felt the reactor start with a tremble, then the sensors in the frame of the ASF came online reading out the integrity of armour, control surfaces, RCS, and weapons. Green across the board.

"Pre-flight check complete, I'm lifting off"

"Go, just go!" Lisa came over the radio

"Don't need to tell me twice!"

The electric motors in the landing gear brought the stationary ASF to a taxiing speed, turning the ASF towards the open bay door and lining up with the launch indicator on her HUD. She pushed the throttle to max and shot out of the bay, then pulling on the control stick, she pulled the Thunderbird into a climb. Circling around the DropShip, Svetlana brought the ASF onto the same heading Cole had gone and immediately spotted that which troubled him. Mark was engaging 8 giant green humanoids, one of which appeared to be badly battered, littered around him at varying distances lay a handful of the same green Cyclopes', unmoving.

"Danger close, I'm bringing the rain!" Svetlana called out over the com

"About time! I can't keep up with all these freaks!"

Svetlana brought her Thunderbird into a strafing run and locked onto two Gargantuas and fired both of her LRM20s, sending a cluster of 20 missiles each into two of the giants. The missiles rained down on them, sending green chucks of hide and purple blood to scatter and spray across the desert floor, both collapsed face first and didn't get back up. Realigning her fighter before she had to break off the run, she brought her crosshairs over another of the Gargantuas and fired a pair of large and medium lasers into the things chest. The point of impact scorched for a second before glowing white hot, then evaporating into nothingness as the lasers bored their way through its torso, leaving a gaping hole that didn't last long as the Gargantua exploded into a chunky purple mist that splattered across Coles Mech.

"Three down! I'm breaking off, coming in for another attack run!"

"Great shooting! Not a fan of the confetti though."

"Beggars can't be choosers" She retorted slyly

From Coles perspective, the massive ASF screamed overhead and flew off towards the towers of stone, the racket penetrating his Mechs cockpit. Focusing back on the remaining Gargantuas, Cole brought his crosshair and loosed all his lasers at one of the Cyclops, bringing it down in one fell swoop. Twisting his Mechs torso to face the others, he felt a jolt as one was closer than 100 meters from him, his heat being way to high form him to fire another salvo of lasers, he opted to fire his LRM5, the missiles making a sharp upward arc and then down onto the Gargantuas back. It fell forward as the impact knocked it down, but started to get back up just as a massive blast doomed from Coles left, a giant slug hitting the Gargantua in the side of the face and exiting out the other side, sending it back into the dirt.

"Woohoo! Fear me! For I shall be your final destination!" James cried out over the com and external speakers, catching the ire of the 4 remaining aliens.

Two broke off their charge and redirected themselves at McAlister, accepting the challenge, James brought his Mechs arms to face the closest and fired his paired medium lasers, causing the Gargantua to break off its charge to avoid the fire. Turning to face the other, James lined up the hunch on his Mechs right shoulder, which contained an AC/20, and fired the 200mm round dead center of the approaching alien. The round hit with the force of a bullet train, crushing the exoskeleton of the monster and caving in its chest, where the round continued on through and out its back.

"I thought you guys were supposed to be tough!" James yelled triumphantly

"Watch out! To your left!" Cole came over the radio

James, turning to face what Cole had warned of, but too late, as the charging Gargantua tackled his Mech, sending it sprawling onto the ground back first. The giant kept its footing and stepped over body of the Hunchback, aiming its arms at the head of the Mech

"Oh shit!"

Cole, not wanting to see the kid suffer for his mistake, punched the throttle for his JumpJets and took off into the air, rising to 90 meters before coming down behind the monster. Landing in a running stance, Cole strode the few steps in between him and the Gargantua, and fired both arm mounted lasers into its back, causing it to arc in pain and breaking its aim on the Hunchbacks cockpit. Close enough for a melee strike, Cole brought his Mechs right arm around in a wide swing that hit the alien on the side of the head, careening it to through the air and into the ground, and sending fractures across its body. Taking advantage of the aliens weakened position, he fired all of his lasers into the most heavily cracked side causing the monsters blood to boil and explode outwards from its shattered side.

"Saved my bacon there Lieutenant! Thanks." James offered in gratitude

"Stow it for later, we're not finished yet!"

Offering James's Mech his Mechs hand, he pulled up the downed machine up and turned to face the remaining hostiles, James doing the same. Two more Gargantuas remained, the third having suffered from its wounds made it no longer capable of fighting.

"Watch out boys! Lightshow incoming!" Svetlana called out over the coms

Just as a flash of blue and green coherent light struck one of the Gargantuas in the back, resulting in the purple mist again, while a flight of 40 LRMs came crashing down around the last one, tearing it apart.

_**Black Mesa, Orbital Control and Observation**_

"Wow, I, I can't even imagine the power requirements to do ANY of what they did." Erin said, awed at what their _allies _had managed

"Well hot damn! I think I owe THEM each a round of beers!" Barney remarked cheerfully

"Let's just say, I'm happy their on our side." Gordon added

The radio crackled at the console, then Lisa's voice came through

"Well gentlemen, I have no idea what you've gotten us mixed up in, but we're glad to be here! Sort of."


	7. Chapter 7

Unforeseen Consequences P7

_**Earth, May 16**__**th**__** – August 13**__**th**__** 2002**_

_The remaining crew of the Righteous Rain and Proteus, after making landfall on Earth near Black Mesa, proceed to assist Gordon, Barney and Erin along with other surviving Black Mesa personnel, in securing the research facility using the equipment that arrived on the Proteus and the different projects under development at the facility._

_Taking the already retreating HECU by surprise, the US military is forced to abandon any effort at recapturing or erasing Black Mesa along with other more covert military counterparts due to the heavy infestation of Xenian life forms, the arrival of spacefaring humans from the future and Gordon Freeman. _

_After securing strategic areas of the facility, and preventing any newly teleported creatures from remaining there, Erin and Lisa contact the scientists at the Lambda complex and learn that the aliens continue to arrive due to an immensely powerful being holding the dimensional rift open._

_The Lambda complex, having the facilities to send people to Xen suggest that a person go through to close the rift, missing the required energy to send them prevents this course of action immediately. Lisa suggests that they use the Proteus's fusion reactor to power the teleporter, as the reactor produces more than enough energy for the teleport and due to the extra power a team could be sent rather than a single person._

_Gordon volunteers for the trip and is sent to Xen along with James McAlister, adorned in Elemental power armour, and a contingent of non-hostile HECU marines led by a Corporal named Adrian Shephard. After fighting their way through the hostile environment of Xen, the team find and kill the being that was responsible for the continuation of the resonance cascade, the Nihilanth, and are there after teleported back to Black Mesa._

_The Governments of the world are forced to begin evacuating their populations from rural and suburban areas into fortified cities as the effects of the resonance cascade don't end with the closing of the rift. Alien fauna wreak havoc among communities and ecosystems as they out compete many Earth based creatures._

_Black Mesa, now without the ties to any government or authority, go into isolation and lockdown the entire facility. Efforts of the personnel start with rebuilding destroyed areas of the base and reverse engineering the technologies in the Proteus and the equipment contained within._

_**Black Mesa, August 13**__**th**__** 2002**_

Lisa awoke to the sound of construction, a sound that she'd been hearing since she'd started to officially live at Black Mesa. She got out of the makeshift bed and walked over to the filing cabinet that acted as half wardrobe half locker, and dressed herself in Black Mesa coveralls. She was to oversee final touches on the first practical fusion reactor _this _terra had ever built.

Walking over to her desk, Lisa sat in the chair and lifted the lid on a laptop, another thing that set this _universe _apart from hers, and logged in to check if there were any major or critical issues that needed to be taken care of before she'd head off to the reactor room. Finding nothing pending, she headed for the door.

Walking out into the hallways, Lisa made for the elevator to her right, entering it she selected the lowest level that the elevator would take her. As the elevator descended, she thought about all that she'd come to know in the past little while, the first being that she was no longer in the _Inner Sphere_, or for that matter, the same universe. She and the others had misJumped due to the timing of their jump and the resonance cascade here at Black Mesa, which had catapulted them to this universe and 1057 years into the past. The second was that despite the gap in time from her universe to this one, the technology was not primitive, even more advanced in some areas, like the computers that littered every corner of the facility or the fact that they had figured out _teleportation. _

The elevator slowed its descent and pinged when it came to a stop, jarring Lisa out of her thoughts. As the doors opened, she saw the numerous people running about with laptops and tools, reminding her of the moments just before the misJump. Finding her way around the crowd and large bulbous fusion reactor, she entered an office and saw Erin at his desk reading various reports and scrolling through information on his terminal.

"Good morning Doctor, giving everything a glance over before we start her up?"

"Ah yes, good morning Lisa. I am indeed combing through the data to spot any possible issues, so far so good."

"It's time to start it up?"

"Yes it is, as long as there's nothing wrong. Once we have this reactor going, we can start to power up some of the other areas of the base and even get the bots to start moving supplies from storage and clearing debris. We'll have this place in tip top condition in no time."

Giving his desk one more look over, Erin nodded to himself and walked around to the door, they both walked out and onto a catwalk above the reactor and into the control room. Speaking into the mic on the control panel, Erin began the announcement

"Everyone, we're starting up the reactor, the benchmarks will be set at 1, 10, 100 and 1000 MW, so let's hope for a successful set of tests."

Everyone in the room moved away from the reactor and up into various positions from which they could observe. Erin opened the safety glass that encased the button which would ignite the fusion fires, and pressed it. The lights in the room dimmed as the bases power plants kick started the fusion reactions, a deep resonance and vibration spread throughout the room, filling it with a low but steady hum.

"Start-up successful, mark at 1 MW"

Erin brought a slider on the control panel up another notch and waited for the response of the reactor, the humming grew louder.

"Mark at 10 MW" Erin called out again

Erin repeated the process, this time causing the ground to vibrate ever so slightly as the humming grew even louder.

"Mark at 100 MW"

Clapping came from below as the reactor held against the raging fusion reaction inside.

Pushing the slider as far as it would go, causing the reactors humming to grow loud enough to worry some of the onlookers

"750…800…880…900…Mark! 1 Giga Watt! Structural integrity good, heat generation higher than anticipated but within acceptable boundaries, electric output is still positive. That's a success people! Good wor-"

The clapping grew louder, cutting through the humming, with some whistles and cheers mixed into the chorus. But the noise was distant, in Erin's mind, as were the colours and shapes of all around him. Slowly at first, the world seemed to take on a harsh two tone colour scheme, as the beginning of a word formed from a voice that seemed to originate from his inside his mind.

"_Doctor Errrin, it seems that…aha, you have found something of, shall we say, interessst. Unfortunately my…aha, employers' desires diverge from the pathhh you find yourself upon."_

Everything was at a standstill, nothing moved, not the people, not the fans behind their grate covers, not even the pulsing of the lights that ran on AC. Everything was still, then like a shadow in the distance, a figure approached from the middle of Erin's sight, the shadow gathering detail as it approached like a glass passing though smoke, the figure filled out. A man in a pale blue suit, a red tie adorning his neck and eyes like emerald and sapphire fire.

"_I have, aha…taken stepsss, to ensure the outcome. Despite the…odd, interference, the choice has been made for you. Good luck, Mr. Eckhart, as what comes may be…indessscribable. It is now the real work starts_."


	8. Chapter 8

Unforeseen Consequences P8

_**Huntress, Smoke Jaguar Homeworld, April 9**__**th**__** 3060**_

Victor Steiner Davion had finished giving his speech to the members of Operation Serpent and was headed for his dropship to plan out their next move for ending the Clans invasion once and for all, when what appeared to be a bright blue dot appeared in the upper atmosphere of Huntress. It flashed brilliantly a few times before it seemed to shiver and then grow into a disk, and at this distance the apparent size was small but not tiny, making the actual size enormous. Clouds began to be pulled towards the anomaly until a secondary accretion disk of clouds had formed around the epicenter, it was at this point that the inner disk began to shiver again, this time more violently, and it grew once again to a staggering size, taking up a large portion of the distant sky. 

"What in the hell?" Victor asked aloud

Just as Victor vocalized his thoughts, the center of the event in the sky grew into a spherical shape and let out a great wail followed by a shockwave of strange vertical shafts of blue energy that reverberated with everything it passed through. Already damaged buildings and infrastructure began to collapse and crumble, sending gouts of smoke and dust up into the air. Victor turned away from the energy blast and brought up his arm, shielding his eyes from the energetic release. Men and women all around turned back to face the strange sight and were left in shock as what appeared to be insect like creatures pour out of the sphere by the hundreds, swarming together like locusts.

Victor turned to face his dropship and began to run like he'd never done before. The ship being less than a hundred meters away, Victor began to yell at the top of his lungs as the sentries posted at the entrance to the Mech bay, and they taking notice of their Princes calls after separating their gazes from the awful sight above them, tried to understand what he was saying.

"GET EVERYONE TO THEIR STATIONS! ALL MECHWARRIORS ARE TO MOUNT UP, NOW!"

The sentries needed no other instructions, turning and running inside, one went for the intercom and relayed the orders to the bridge of the dropship for further relay to other units and dropships, and the second went straight to control panel and hit the large red button that would sound the alarm. Victor just entered the bay as the sentry hit the alarm, ignoring them now, Victor made a hard right and ran for the ladder that would take him up to the catwalk and to his Daishi.

The sound of something moving quite fast but slowing down could be heard as Victor climbed into the command couch of the Mech, ignoring it, Victor pulled the cooling vest over himself and brought the neurohelmet to a rest on his head, securing the latches to the vest and connecting the tubes that brought coolant to his vest. Outside the noise became distant, leaving a moment of silence before the sound of gunfire and laser discharges resounded through the Mech bay. Victor bought the Mech online and made the Mech take a step out of its bay, turning to the left and out towards the open bay door, looking down at the source of the gunfire he saw bipedal insect like machines that were taller than an Elemental in their armour by a meter at least and were charging towards the dropship from no more than fifty meters away.

Aiming for the closest one, Victor fired a medium laser at the machine and got a direct hit which let out a large puff of smoke, but as the cloud of smoke hung there for a second, the machine came barreling through now missing the large front plate that would count as its torso, revealing a maze of mechanical innards and tubes filled with a silvery white fluid along with a neon blue radiating from various areas. The troops in the Mech bay, while frightened at the sight of an unmanned machine that managed to withstand a direct hit from a Mechs medium laser, were not shocked into inaction. They opened fire on the now exposed internals of the mechanical berserker, both small calibre hyper velocity rounds and laser pulses smashed into it shattering the insides and sending shrapnel pinging around inside its body and the silvery white fluid spilled out into its torso cavity and onto the ground, causing it to stagger and then collapse forwards. No one could think of celebration at the destruction of the machine as over a hundred more were hurdling towards them, and not mindlessly charging either, groups of the machines hunkered down and formed small phalanxes and fired small blue-black streaks of energy at their assailants which impacted a number of the troops which instantly seared a hole in their amour and caused burns and severe bleeding beneath.

Not willing to watch his men get slaughtered, Victor fired the quartet of medium lasers in each arm at separate clusters of the machines, ablating their oddly tough carapaces and melting more exposed areas such as legs and lower arms. Some getting to close for his comfort, Victor opted to fire his gauss rifles into the encroaching horde, crushing some into the ground and ricocheting off of the crushed ones and into others, sending many flying in various directions. Despite the show of force from Victors Mech, the machines continued their charge, still firing at the troops but also now aiming for the two story tall Mech, though not hitting any part with concentrated fire and did little damage.

"This is Victor Davion to all forces, begin a retreat to your dropships and prepare for liftoff! We're not staying here, and we don't have the numbers to face these hostiles!"

Victor spotted Kai Allard-Liao running along the catwalk to his right and opted to not be in his way when he mounted up into Yen-Lo-Wang. Taking the Mech to 40 km/h, Victor charged out of the bay and into the fray of hostiles, and opened fire with all his weapons, firing the gauss rifles followed by the lasers and ended with the SRM6. The machines collapsed under the laser fire as they took limbs out from under them, the gauss rounds shattering the machines into confetti and shrapnel, with the SMR6 landing into the groups and blasting them apart and tearing them to pieces.

"Move to your left!" Kai yelled through the com channel

Doing so, Victor sidestepped to his left and continued his fire, while Kai came sprinting out in his custom Centurion at over 100 km/h, kicking the machines and sending them cartwheeling through the air while firing the two medium lasers in the center torso of his Mech, and lining up the clusters with the right arm mounted AC/20 that cracked and shattered their bodies.

After a few minutes of carnage, the area around the dropship was clear and secured. Victor looked off into the distance and saw the beams of other Mechs and dropships lasers firing in a variety of directions, while some were still and unengaged like he and his own were. Gazing back up to what was undoubtedly a portal, Victor saw similar but significantly larger flying insect like machines that carried similarly sized four legged machines that rivaled his Dashi in size and probably weighed significantly more.

"This is Victor Davion, and this is an order to EVERYONE, we have an unknown number of hostiles with an unknown level of strength inbound from that 'portal', and I'm telling you now and this once, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE."


End file.
